2024-01-11 17:14 update: 2024-01-12, 21:54
Photo PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Poland's main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) that was removed from power last year has staged a protest in Warsaw against the actions of the new government.
The demonstration dubbed "Protest of Free Poles" started on Thursday afternoon outside the Polish parliament where PiS lost its majority in October 15 elections before being replaced, in mid-December, by the new government of Donald Tusk.
Last week Jaroslaw Kaczynski, PiS leader, called on Poles to join the protest "in defence of freedom of speech, freedom of the media and ... democracy."
"We have a real problem with democracy today," he said.
Kaczynski also argued that the new government aims to "fulfil the expectations of the EU" and "reduce our country to an area inhabited by Poles and ruled from the outside."
The demonstartion follows the new government’s takeover of public media outlets last month. The culture minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, dismissed the boards of all the public media, took the state 24-hour news channel, TVP Info, off the air and put the country's public television (Telewizja Polska or TVP), radio and news agency into liquidation in a bid, as it said, to restore impartiality to state media.
PiS claims, that these actions were carried out in violation of the law and resulted in restrictions on media freedom and pluralism.
PiS politicians have also strongly condemned the imprisonment of former Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik, both members of PiS party, who have been convicted of abuse of power. The two were detained by police officers at the Presidential Palace and taken to prison on Tuesday evening.
Among the participants of "The Protest of Free Poles" are Kaczynski, former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and head of the PiS parliamentary club Mariusz Blaszczak.
According to Morawiecki, "breaking the rules of democracy should not be allowed to become the new norm." "We must stand shoulder to shoulder and defend the values that are the foundation of Poland," he said.
Those gathered in front of the parliament building hold banners which bear the slogans: "Tyranny of lawlessness", "Lock up the bribers, free the heroes", and "The Germans will not spit in our face." The crowds chants include "Tusk to a prison cell, not to Brussels" and "Free media, free courts, free people."
At 6 pm the protesters will march to TVP headquarters on Powstancow Square. (PAP)
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